ULTIMATE HISTORY OF TAPE ECHO
Introduction
Grab a snack, a notebook, and put your phone on silent because in this article I'm walking you through the complete history of tape delay. The whole thing.
Kind of.
Okay, I’m aware that even the most dedicated reader only has so much attention to spare. I respect that. So, let me clarify that this is not a blog about tape delay style units, but the history of the effect itself. That’s an admittedly broad topic. My team did the math on it, and if I wanted to give this subject the time it truly deserves, you’d be reading for roughly 61,694,000 minutes, which breaks down to about 117 years, give or take.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.
That said, I’m going to hit the highlights, and the sooner we’re into this blog the sooner we’re out of it. So let’s get down to business.
The 1940s-1950s
All of this started in the 1940s when people started experimenting with creating fake acoustic space. The main goal? To make your room sound bigger than it was. You had a small recording area, but you wished your tracks sounded like the spacious Capital Studios room A. The solution: you chained together two reel-to-reel tape machines, one recording and one playing back next to it in real-time, just slightly later than the original track, and this created an “echo effect” or added artificial space to the original source.
Les Paul gave (arguably) the biggest contribution in 1945 when he created his DIY reel-to-reel tape echo machine. This was eventually turned into a single unit by other inventors. The effect itself was massively popularized by Sun Studios in Memphis and the brilliant Sam Phillips who used it on recordings by Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and many others.
The story goes that Chet Atkins bought one of the original units Ray Butts created. When Sam Phillips at Sun Studios (who was using his DIY tape rig at the time) heard one of Chet’s recordings, he learned that Ray Butts echo sound was coming from a self-contained tape delay in a new style of guitar amp. Long story short, Sam freaked out and ordered one for the Sun Records studio. Sam’s regular session guitarist’s name was Scotty Moore, and he played it on every single Elvis track that he recorded on through the 1970s.
This was the main technique for creating echo in recordings until 1953, when Ray Butts invented the EchoSonic guitar amplifier. This innovation took tape delay out of the complicated category and made it accessible for everyone.
Later in 1953, version one of the Binson Echorec was released (not to be confused with my good friend Chris Benson, who builds amps in the Pacific Northwest). Echorec simply means echo record, and it's a fantastic unit if you can find one. This device used tape, but the main mechanism wasn't a reel that moved like a string through rollers over tape heads (like most reel-to-reels at the time). It was a circular disk resembling a floppy disk, turning in a circular motion much like a record on a turntable. It was strange, clever, and amazing.
In 1958, the Watkins (also known as WEM) Copicat hit the scene. Basically, the inventor, Charlie Watkins, had created this London guitar shop out of a record store and noticed that a local studio was chaining together tape echoes to create the desired effect. Charlie’s response? "I think I can put this all in one box." So he did. A band called The Shadows used the Copicat on a track called Apache, which became a big hit. Suddenly, everyone wanted one. The legend is that the first 100 units sold out instantly with people literally lined down the sidewalk.
Also in 1958, Binson released the Baby Binson. As you can see from the photo, this product was well-named: it was cute, little, and easy portable (it even came with its own carrying case!)
Almost immediately after, Binson released the Binson Echorec 2. Going purely off the aesthetic, this was a beautiful product. The golden hue immediately conveyed its value, and a musician only had to look at it to want to buy it instantly. The Binson Echorec 2 was also sold under a few other names, including Sound City Echo. But the most important thing to know about this delay? David Gilmour of Pink Floyd used one. And when David Gilmour uses something, it’s cool.
The 1960s - 1970s
In 1959, electrical engineer Mike Battle decided he wanted to take the Ray Butts EchoSonic amplifier, pull the tape delay unit out of the guitar amplifier, and make it a standalone device. He accomplished this, made some minor tweaks, and released it in 1961 as the EP-1. It was an instant success.
In 1962, Market Electronics began to manufacture and distribute this same delay through a company called Maestro (that many of you know from its association with Gibson). The EP-1 stood out for two main reasons: first, this was one of the first-ever tape echo devices to have the slidable tape head using the mechanical handle. Second, it had a very different repeat nature than the EP-2s and EP-3s that Maestro would soon distribute. The EP-2 and EP-3 versions filtered and EQ’ed the repeats inside of an effects loop, which kept the repeats stable and almost identical no matter how many times you repeated.
On the EP-1, this was done outside of that loop, which meant the resulting sound might be a little crazy. Every repeat got brighter and brighter and eventually choked off into a weird squeaking dynamic. For this reason, the EP-1 was and is indispensable for a different style of slapback delay.
Even so, Market Electronics was a bit late to the transistor game. Most other companies had replaced their tubes with transistors already, but because Mike Battle didn't think it sounded good, Market Electronics didn’t have this modern sound to offer until they more or less forced him to design a transistor version. Mike finished the updated device, Market Electronics released it, but Mike was so dissatisfied with it that he sold his stock in the company and left upon its release.
Ironically, in spite of his certainty that it would flop, the EP-3 is the most famous tape echo that Mike Battle ever designed. This echo has been used by Jimmy Page, Brian May, and countless others. The EP-3 was also the longest made version of the Echoplex, distributed from 1970 to 1991, because it frankly sounds amazing. Speaking as a guy with literally thousands of guitar pedals and effects devices in his collection, this might be my favorite.
In 1974, Roland dropped one of the most amazing and arguably most important tape echoes ever made: the Space Echo. The unique design used a capstan-driven tape system that removed all kinds of mechanical parts and let the tape move freely in an upper compartment. This made the tape and machine last longer, plus it sounded amazing. The Space Echo featured three playback heads so you could stack different sounds and make massive ambient textures. It also included EQ control on the echo and spring reverb, which Brian Setzer and Radiohead have all used**.
**Not at the same time on the same stage, because that'd be really strange. But I’d probably pay to see it. I think we all would.
In 1977, Korg released the SE-500 in response to Roland's Space Echo. This echo was exclusively marketed towards studio musicians. Just one year later, in ’78, they released the guitar version, the SE-300. It was considered a more hi-fi quality system than the Space Echo, which I find interesting because the KORG that I have actually sounds more lo-fi. I love it anyway. Maybe mine needs some TLC?
In the late ’70s, a Japanese company called Multivox released the Multi Echo and this is quite possibly one of my favorite pieces of gear that I've ever owned.**
**I know I said that the EP-3 was my favorite, but I’m allowed to change my mind.
For sheer versatility, you can’t beat the Multi Echo. I've used it in the studio and used it live with equal success. Honestly, sometimes I just sit around and look at it, because it’s a beautiful piece of equipment. The Multi Echo has a really unique playback head separation, which I've actually modified on one of my machines to have separate outputs for each head so you can split it into multi tracks inside your DAW. This device has reverb. You can overdrive the preamp and it sounds beautiful.
I love it on vocals. I love it on guitars. I love it on snares. I love it on bass. I just love it, period. It's like the next level Space Echo that should have been.
The 1980s - 1990s
This next tape echo, the Univox Echo-Tech, is a Japanese echo from the early '80s. Simply put, this is a fantastic device. The effects from this echo are mind-blowing, almost surgically precise. When I took it apart, I was stunned. It didn't use a reel of tape like I assumed. It used an actual disc, much like the Binson-style units. Like the Binson Echorec 2, this device was also released under different names.
The fact that I own one is due entirely to a fan of the show, Nick Turner, who found this at a garage sale and then sent it to me. Considering a used Univox Echo-Tech with significant wear and tear is selling for almost $500, this is the gold mine of garage sale finds.
Nick, I want to know where you live. I want to know the people you live near and I want to know what their garages look like.**
**Not being creepy, just trying to be a responsible gear shopper.
The 2000s - Present
Let's move into the modern age of tape delay, meaning that these are tape delay units that are currently made and that you can buy brand new.
I don't think there's a bigger contributor to bringing tape delay into the modern age than Mike Fuller of Fulltone. He's recreated two classic units, the EP-1 Tube and the EP-3 Solid State. It is insane the effort that he has put into making these units. He spent the years 2000 - 2004 recreating all of the mechanical parts, including head mounts, the gliding laser-cut playback head track, the cart, the roller lever, the roller mount, top plate, chassis, the wooden box it's in, every bracket, the motors, and even the ball bearing roller that you see. He designed them himself in CAD.
These Fulltone units are the best of everything: you achieve the vintage sound, but with a unit that is ready to tour the world and actually work for that entire trip. As someone who owns more pedals than anyone could reasonably need, it's really wild to play a brand new EP-3 device. No rust, no grime, no warbling mechanical parts. It's really magic. I love my vintage units, but they break every year, if not every eight weeks. Not so with the EP-1 Tube and EP-3 Solid State. These units are built like tanks.
My favorite is the EP-3 Solid State. It is absolutely perfect for my style of playing. I can’t recommend it enough. It handles overdrives in front of it; it loves every amp that I played it into. I have nothing to gain from this (other than satisfaction that other collectors are using quality products, too) but I want you to just go buy one. Now. Seriously. I’ll wait.
……..
Okay, you guys back yet? You loved the SS? You want to marry it? Good. Moving on.
In 2015, T-Rex released the Replicator series of tape delay effects. Personally, I own the Junior. This is a real tape echo device that they added tap tempo to, which is bonkers from an engineering standpoint. This device has tap tempo and uses eighth-inch tape, in comparison to the much larger tape sizes that you see on a Space Echo or an Echoplex.
Last but not least on this tape delay journey: the Tape Echo EF-X2, released in 2019 from an Australian company called Echo Fix. This device is brilliant, both because it's based on the classic Roland Space Echo and because the guy who created it, Shane, took his cues from Mike Fuller and went through great detail to do this the right way.
After Shane had been servicing Space Echos for about 10 years, seeing all the inherent problems, he decided, "I'm going to make one of these that's built to last and that sounds phenomenal." And that's exactly what he did.
It took him about three years, a pile of money, and a ton of work to pull it off, but the end result is spectacular. I'll never forget pulling this out of the box, turning it on, and just being blown away looking at the beautiful chrome, no dents or scratches that you normally see on a vintage Space Echo. As a collector, it’s wild to see a brand new Space Echo-type device.
The Tape Echo EF-X2 functions as an even better version of the Space Echo. I love the reverb. I love the EQ on the repeats. I love the control. It's just a masterpiece of a tape echo.
Conclusion
It's wild to look at this massive timeline and see how a tape echo unit has developed from a DIY rigging of multiple tape machines together into something as spectacular as these modern units.
I also love how these originators of the compact tape echo units were doing the same thing from all over the world, having not known each other. They just saw the use of these rigging of tape machines and decided, "I want to make a standalone box." Whether through the Echoplex or Ray Butts or Watkins Copicat, these engineers were chasing the same sound at the same time. That speaks to me as a musician. We all want to follow and find that new thing. That's what tape delay is all about. A new sound, most definitely “not your dad’s guitar.”
Now I look at these brand new units by Mike Fuller and Shane, and it's incredible the lengths that they've gone to to recreate these vintage units and bring them into the present age, going through such crucial details that they've had.
As a history buff and pedal enthusiast, I could share dozens of phone calls and hundreds of emails with these greats in the echo industry. Ultimately, Mike and Shane have succeeded in emulating a vintage sound with a brand new device. You can still play the real thing, and with confidence. That's what these new units are all about.